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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Minister admits drug taking Paul Majendie Ananova Thursday 12 Oct 2000 Public health minister Yvette Cooper has broken Government ranks and became the first serving minister to admit smoking cannabis since shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe ignited debate over legalisation with her hard-line zero tolerance policy. The Conservatives were forced to back-pedal over the proposals, unveiled last week at their party conference, after a string of Tory frontbenchers admitted they had tried the drug in their youth. Surveys of Cabinet ministers brought many "no comments" from their opposite numbers, with only those who had previously admitted taking cannabis confirming they had experimented with it. But Ms Cooper, married to Chancellor Gordon Brown's chief economic adviser Ed Balls, admitted taking the drug, as did former Chancellor Norman Lamont. Home Secretary Jack Straw and Cabinet colleagues have insisted there will be no moves towards legalising the drug. And appearing on BBC Radio, Ms Cooper insisted the confession should not affect her competence in office. "In terms of people doing things in their youth that should be consistent with public policy judgments they make later on, nobody would ever guarantee that," she said. She insisted there had been no "party line" not to answer questions about previous drug use and asked if she wanted to answer the question, she said: "I will give you a straight answer." "I did try cannabis while at university, like a lot of students at that time, and it is something that I have left, you know, behind and it was several years ago. " Downing Street and the Labour Party declined to comment on her admission.
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